MLS Cup final set as LA Galaxy to host surprise package New York Red Bulls

The Los Angeles Galaxy will host the New York Red Bulls in the MLS Cup final after the pair won their conference championship matches on Saturday.

The Red Bulls get a chance to win their first MLS Cup title after a 1-0 win over Orlando City.

Galaxy will have home advantage as the higher seed after an 85th-minute goal from Serbian forward Dejan Joveljić gave them a 1-0 win over the Seattle Sounders.

A 47th-minute header from Andres Reyes gave the Red Bulls the victory and sent the New Jersey club to the December 7 final.

The Red Bulls qualified for the play-offs with a seventh-place finish in the regular season, which earned them the final automatic spot in the play-offs.

Sandro Schwarz’s team then caused a major upset by beating defending champions Columbus Crew in the best-of-three first round before eliminating local rival New York City last week.

Orlando had the early pressure and Red Bulls keeper Carlos Coronel had to be at his best to keep out Facundo Torres’ attempt after a counter-attack.

But Red Bulls threatened themselves when their Swedish playmaker Emil Forsberg floated a free-kick into the penalty area and Belgian Dante Vanzeir tapped the ball just wide.

Two minutes after the break, New York grabbed the decisive goal when John Tolkin’s free kick landed perfectly at the back post, where Reyes arrived to head in.

Orlando became increasingly desperate in their attacks. Duncan McGuire managed to get behind the Red Bulls defense but fired his shot well wide before Luis Muriel’s hasty effort from a promising position flew harmlessly off target.

The last chance of the match fell to Ivan Angulo, but he too failed to find the target as the Red Bulls, founders of the MLS in 1996, held on.

“I am very proud of the entire group. It’s great to create this atmosphere and also with this fighting spirit. The last few weeks have been great and now we have another week and it’s not over yet,” said German Schwarz, former coach of Mainz and Hertha Berlin.

The Galaxy, record five-time champions in MLS, will have a chance to extend that milestone when they play in their first MLS Cup final in a decade.

Joveljić had twice seen attempts saved by Seattle goalkeeper Stefan Frei, but he kept his composure to settle a tough game.

Alex Roldan gave the ball away for Seattle and LA’s Spanish midfielder Riqui Puig played a deft through ball to Joveljić, who set up an ice-cold finish.